1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the generation of content for data broadcasting, and in particular relates to the generation of content that includes an image containing a banner advertisement which changes with broadcast time.
2. Related Art
In recent years, digital-broadcasting is performed to deliver digitally-compressed video, voice, and data via transmission means such as satellite or CATV.
Also, so-called data broadcasting is employed nowadays in Japan, to transmit content made up of mutually-linked sets of image data to a viewer (i.e. a user of a broadcast receiving device which receives the content and displays images on a display screen), so that the user can view desired images on the screen in an interactive manner. The standardization of data broadcast technologies is being promoted by ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses) and others in Japan.
Content of a data broadcast is a group of frames (hereinafter, “page frames”) which are each formed based on a set of image data to be displayed in one frame. In a given broadcast time period, the content is made up of a plurality of sets of image data, such as Web pages, which are to be displayed on the screen. A broadcast transmitting device repeatedly transmits such a plurality of sets of image data during the time period, so that the broadcast receiving device can receive them anytime during the time period and display images on the screen.
The plurality of sets of image data that form the content include data of character strings and images to be displayed on the screen, text code data written in some kind of markup language, and the like. The markup language is a language used for determining how to display data on the screen.
An example of data broadcast content is a weather information program that broadcasts information about the regional weather conditions, 24 hours every day. When the broadcast receiving device receives this weather information program, first a page frame that contains one or more buttons is displayed on the screen. When the user selects (presses) one of the buttons, a page frame corresponding to the selected button is displayed.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the top page frame of the weather information program which is displayed first on the screen.
The broadcast receiving device receives a plurality of sets of image data of the broadcasted weather information program, and displays a page frame 9100 shown in FIG. 1 on the screen. The page frame 9100 includes a button 9101.
The button 9101 displays a so-called banner advertisement of a sponsor which supports the weather information program. This button 9101 serves as an entry to shift to a page frame that provides detailed information of a product or service being advertized. In this specification, a relation between two page frames which effects such a shift is referred to as “link”, such that “link destination” of the button displaying the banner ad is the page frame of the detailed information of the ad. Note here that the link destination of the banner ad button can translate to the link destination of the display contents of the banner ad button.
This being so, when the user presses the button 9101 using, for example, a remote control device for controlling the broadcast receiving device, a page frame 9200 shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the screen.
The page frame 9200 is a page frame showing the ad which is attached to the weather information program.
This page frame 9200 includes buttons 9201 and 9202. When the user presses one of these buttons, a page frame showing another information relating to the ad is displayed on the screen.
There may be cases where page frames that make up content change with broadcast time, i.e. the contents of the page frames differ from one broadcast time slot to another within the broadcast time of the content. To broadcast such content made up of the page frames which differ from one broadcast time slot to another, it is necessary to change the contents of data which is repeatedly transmitted, for each broadcast time slot. The data which is repeatedly transmitted during one broadcast time slot is “carousel data” (hereafter simply referred to as “carousel”).
A procedure of generating the content of the above weather information program and transmitting it by a broadcast station or the like is explained below, focusing on an authoring device for aiding the creation of the content and a broadcast content generating device for organizing the created content in a format for data transmission. The authoring device and the broadcast content generating device are conceivable devices for the generation and transmission of content.
(1) The authoring device creates, for a carousel corresponding to each broadcast time slot, text code data written in the markup language to define each page frame, and monomedia data such as image data that is the material for displaying each page frame, as files. The authoring device also creates structure information files that hold structure information showing which files should be contained in each module. Hereinafter, a file of text code data in the markup language is referred to as “BML document file”, and a file of monomedia data as “material file”.
A module is a logical data unit of transmission/reception when the broadcast transmitting device transmits a data broadcast or the broadcast receiving device receives a data broadcast. Modules are components of a carousel. One module can contain the contents of more than one file if the file size is no greater than a predetermined size such as 1 MB.
A structure of a page frame is defined by a BML document file, which describes a link to another page frame using a filename of a BML document file of the other page frame as a link destination address. Here, if the BML document file of the link destination page frame belongs to a module different with the BML document file of the link source page frame, the link destination address is expressed by adding a module name of the module to which the BML document file of the link destination page frame belongs, to the filename of the BML document file.
(2) The broadcast content generating device receives the BML document files, material files, and structure information files created by the authoring device. In accordance with the structure information in the structure information files, the broadcast content generating device specifies which BML document files and material files should be contained in each module, and organizes the files which compose each module in multipart form. Here, to organize files of a module in multipart form means to integrate the contents of the files and add information such as addresses so as to enable access to the contents of each file within the module, thereby integrating the contents of the files into a single file.
(3) The broadcast content generating device outputs the multipart data of each module of the carousel corresponding to each broadcast time slot, to a data broadcast transmission system.
The data broadcast transmission system encodes the data of each module of the carousel corresponding to each broadcast time slot, in other words converts the data of the plurality of modules that compose the carousel, into a transport stream. The transport stream mentioned here is based on the MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group 2) standards, and is explained in detail in the ISO/IEC Standard 13818-1 (MPEG2 System) specifications.
Such a transport stream generated for each broadcast time slot is then repeatedly transmitted by a broadcast transmitting device in the data broadcast transmission system, during the corresponding broadcast time slot.
Here, it may be necessary to generate such content in which a page frame, like the page frame shown in FIG. 1, contains a banner ad of a sponsor which changes with broadcast time. For example, consider the case where, in a weather information program which provides the same weather information for three hours, a sponsor of the weather information program changes in each broadcast time slot that is several minutes or several tens of minutes long, and so a different banner ad needs to be displayed in each broadcast time slot depending on which sponsor supports the program during the broadcast time slot.
Since the weather information program is supported by different sponsors in different broadcast time slots, the banner ad provides links to different page frames at the different broadcast time slots. Therefore, the broadcast transmitting device needs to change a carousel to be repeatedly transmitted, for each broadcast time slot.
When the broadcast receiving device receives such content, the top page frame of the weather information program is displayed as shown in FIG. 1, in which only the contents of the banner ad change with time. As the contents of the banner ad change, a page frame which will be displayed when the user presses the banner ad button also changes.
Like when the sponsor of the program frequently changes in a short time, if the banner ad and the group of page frames linked from the banner ad change while the body of the content itself is unchanged, the broadcast station has to transmit a different carousel whenever the banner ad changes.
To do so, a content creator must appropriately define links among all sets of image data that form each carousel prior to the transmission, through the use of the authoring device or the like. The content creator often finds such a work burdensome.
Suppose the banner ad displayed in the top page frame of the weather information program is an ad of a product of a company A that is a sponsor of the program in one broadcast time slot, and an ad of a product of a company B that is another sponsor of the program in the next broadcast time slot.
In this case, a filename of a BML document file which is used as a link destination address of the banner ad button is arbitrarily determined by each of the company A and the company B. Accordingly, a filename of a BML document file which defines a page frame showing detailed information of the product of the company A is likely to be different with a filename of a BML document file which defines a page frame showing detailed information of the product of the company B. In other words, when two files are created by different sponsors, the filenames of the two files will usually end up being different, or they may be made different intentionally for, for example, the purposes of file management. Also, a filename of a material file which holds image data of the banner ad itself is usually different from one sponsor to another. Further, a filename of a material file referenced by the BML document file defining the page frame of the detailed information of the ad may be different from one sponsor to another, as well as the number of material files referenced by such a BML document file.
Thus, when there are different filenames for the BML document file which defines the link destination page frame of the banner ad or there are different filenames for the material file of the image data of the banner ad itself, the content creator has to change the contents of the BML document file which defines the top page frame of the weather information program and appropriately relate all files that form the content, for each carousel.